Vegas used to throw free stuff at you to get you in the door. Free drinks, free parking, a $5 buffet that was basically free. Now the same hotels charge you $50 a night for a pool you might not use and $20 to park in a garage you used to drive straight into.
Some of the old freebies survived, though. A few hotels still don’t charge for parking. You can still watch a trapeze act at Circus Circus, stand in front of a singing robot frog at Wynn and ride two trams without paying anything. Just pay attention to who it’s free for. A lot of what hotels call “free” is free for registered guests only, and some of it is free because you already paid for it in the resort fee.
Parking
A lot of Strip resorts charge $20 a day or more to park, and more when there’s a fight or a concert in town. A few still don’t.
Treasure Island has free self-parking for hotel and casino guests, and lists valet as free too when there’s room. You should still tip the valet guy.
SAHARA has free self-parking and valet for guests. If you’re driving in for a show at the convention center or anything on the north end, it’s an easy call. The monorail stops right there, but you’ll pay to ride it.
Wynn and Encore park registered hotel guests for free. If you’re not staying there, you get three hours free and then the meter starts. Some rewards tiers get in free.
Wynn’s three hours is enough for dinner, but not dinner, a show and a few hours at the tables. If you’re visiting a casino you’re not staying at, look up its parking rules before you pull in.
Get off the Strip and this mostly stops being a problem. Most of the locals casinos still let you park for free.
Free shows and attractions inside the hotels
I’m skipping “walk the Strip at night” because nobody needs to be told to do that. If you want a longer list, our 50 free things to do in Las Vegas covers a lot more than hotels.
Bellagio
Everybody knows the fountains. They go every half hour in the afternoon and every 15 minutes at night, and wind shuts them down sometimes. Stand on the sidewalk by the lake with the other 400 people holding up phones.
The better move is the Bellagio Conservatory. It’s open 24 hours, it’s free, and the whole thing gets torn out and redone about five times a year. Go at 2 a.m. and you’ll have it nearly to yourself. In July it’s also the most pleasant air conditioning on the Strip.
Circus Circus
The circus acts above the Midway have been running since 1968, and they’re still free. Trapeze, aerial silk, clowns, guys balancing on things that shouldn’t hold them. The schedule is down to Friday through Monday, hourly from 1:30 p.m. When an old Vegas freebie starts losing days, that’s usually a sign to go sooner rather than later.
Flamingo
Behind the casino at the Flamingo there’s a wildlife habitat with real Chilean flamingos, pelicans, swans, turtles and koi the size of small dogs. You can walk in off the Strip without being a guest. It’s about as close to quiet as the center Strip gets.
Wynn
The Lake of Dreams starts after dark on the lake behind Wynn, with a waterfall, projections and giant puppets, including a singing frog that’s been there since 2005. Wynn says it’s free to the public. The best views belong to SW Steakhouse and the bars around the lake, which obviously aren’t free, but you can watch without ordering anything.
Caesars Palace
The Fall of Atlantis at the Forum Shops is animatronics from the ’90s. There’s fire, a dragon, and a king who’s been giving the same speech about his ungrateful kids for decades. It’s not good, and that’s why you should see it. It goes on the hour next to the Cheesecake Factory, and there’s a 50,000-gallon saltwater tank right next to it that most people walk past on their way to Gucci.
Silverton
The Silverton has women in mermaid tails swimming through a 117,000-gallon aquarium, Thursday through Sunday. There’s a stingray feeding too. Nobody charges you to watch, and nobody has ever explained why the mermaids are there.
Harrah’s
The Piano Bar at Harrah’s has free entertainment most nights, including dueling pianos and Big Elvis, who has been doing Elvis in this town since the ’90s. No cover charge, but you’re going to end up ordering a drink.
The trams
On a map, the hotels on the Strip look like they’re right next to each other. On foot, getting from one to the next means a casino floor, a parking garage and a pedestrian bridge. Two free trams cut out some of that walking.
The ARIA Express runs between Bellagio, ARIA, the Shops at Crystals and Park MGM. It shuts down for maintenance now and then, so check MGM’s site before you count on it.
The Mandalay Bay tram connects Mandalay Bay, Luxor and Excalibur. In August, it’s the difference between arriving at your show and arriving at your show soaked.
Don’t confuse either one with the Las Vegas Monorail, which costs money and runs behind the hotels on the east side.
Drinks
Casinos still comp drinks if you’re gambling. “Gambling” is getting more literal, though. Some video poker bars now track your play and only pour when you’ve put enough through the machine, and the free stuff usually doesn’t include top shelf.
If you lose $40 waiting on a free beer, that’s a $40 beer. Tip your server either way. We go into more detail on how to get free drinks in Las Vegas.
Pools, Wi-Fi and the gym
Hotels love the word “complimentary” here. At a hotel with a resort fee, the pool, Wi-Fi and gym are what the fee pays for. You’re covering them every night whether you use them or not. Same goes for the “free” bottled water and the digital newspaper nobody reads.
If you’ll never touch the pool or the gym, you’re paying $50 a night for Wi-Fi. Our Las Vegas resort fees chart shows what every hotel charges, including the handful that don’t charge one.
Shuttles, bag storage and upgrades
Airport shuttles. Most big Strip resorts don’t have a free one anymore. A hotel website with an “airport transportation” page is usually just telling you where the cab line is. Ask the hotel directly.
Bag storage. The bell desk will usually hold your bags before check-in or after checkout. Tip them. If you’re not a guest, ask first.
Upgrades. The $20 trick isn’t a real thing. Sometimes asking nicely at the desk works. Being in the rewards program helps more. Nothing gets you a suite for free.
Free outdoors stuff
Leave the hotels and Vegas gets a lot cheaper. A lot of the best things to do around here are outside, and many of them cost nothing.
Calico Basin sits just outside the Red Rock Canyon fee area. You get the same red sandstone and scrambling, a boardwalk at Red Spring and no entry fee. The Red Rock scenic drive itself costs money and needs a timed-entry reservation for much of the year. Our Red Rock Canyon guide explains how it works.
Seven Magic Mountains is the stack of neon-painted boulders off I-15 near Jean. It’s free, there’s free parking and no gate, and it’s leaving. The land lease runs out in December 2026, so this is the last chance to see it there.
The Historic Railroad Trail in Boulder City runs through five tunnels that were blasted out for the Hoover Dam build, with views over Lake Mead. It’s flat and free. Park in Boulder City, because parking at the dam isn’t.
Clark County Wetlands Park is 2,900 acres of trails and actual water inside the valley, with a free nature center. Go at dawn and you’ll probably see coyotes.
The Henderson Bird Viewing Preserve is a water reclamation plant that turned into one of the best birding spots in the Southwest. It’s free, and it’s beautiful, and it’s a sewage facility.
Sloan Canyon has hundreds of petroglyph panels, some about 4,000 years old. There’s no fee and no shade, so go in the cooler months and bring more water than you think you need.
Mt. Charleston is about 45 minutes from the Strip and usually 20 to 30 degrees cooler. Several trailheads and day-use areas charge a small fee, but plenty of the mountain costs nothing. See our Mt. Charleston guide.
For the bigger list, including hikes, lakes and day trips, see our locals’ guide to the best outdoor adventures near Las Vegas. If you like old mining towns, we have a separate guide to ghost towns near Las Vegas.
Downtown
You don’t need a room on Fremont Street to watch the Viva Vision canopy show. It goes every hour after dark, and there’s free live music on the stages most nights. The Neon Museum charges for the Boneyard, but several of its restored signs are installed along Las Vegas Boulevard and lit up at night for free.
Before you book
Check the hotel’s own website. Third-party listings are often months behind on parking and fees. Find out if parking is free for everyone or just guests, what the resort fee is, and whether the thing you want to do has different rules for guests and walk-ins.
And remember that a “free night” offer with a resort fee, a gambling minimum or a required purchase attached isn’t a free night.
